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Appraisal Update – March 2019

DMBA Appraisal Update – March 2019!!

Special request questions for DMBA Members? If any of you have questions during the month, please feel free to email me or call and I will be glad to personally respond. If the topic is of enough interest, I will be glad to expand it and include it for the next monthly update. Thanks,

The same summary for the beginning of February, last month, applies from here again. The DFW market appears to be entering a normal spring cycle as we have started to see an increase in activity as a prelude for our springs market. Compared to the past few years, sale times are slower, and appreciation is lower with the increase in supply. Thankfully, the fundamentals of housing health remain within norms.

Remember the term “bi-furcated” appraisals from last month? Well it will be more and more common in the upcoming year. This means Fannie Mae is pushing to have a “field person” that will inspect, view, measure, photograph the subject property and relay the data back to the office where an appraiser will analyze, write/review a report; based upon field and sales data. Lesser cost, greater Speed and Accuracy are the goals of the revisions. The duties, fees and responsibilities are still in heated discussion. Fannie wanted strong appraisals after the crash in 2008 and now they seem willing to divide and destroy the process they created?

Below are two interesting articles which are results of our past strong market. IE, Buyers in strong markets will pay above list price for location, quality, view demands. The second article reflects a “cooler Spring Market” and several pages of statistics. Dallas, unfortunately, not in the strong positions on this list!

Nearly Half of Homebuyers Paying Above Asking Price

Forty-five percent of homebuyers who purchased a residential property in the past five years wound up paying more than the asking price before having their offer accepted, according to the 2019 NerdWallet Home Buyer Report. Sixty percent of respondents who bought a home in the past five years had to make more than one offer before closing, and 37 percent needed to make three or more offers before securing their purchase.

In a survey of 2,029 adults, NerdWallet found that 42 percent of respondents felt better this year about their overall ability to purchase a home compared with a year ago, up from 28 percent one year ago. However, 25 percent of respondents said they no longer felt financially secure after purchasing their current home—and 34 percent of first-time home buyers acknowledged carrying this sentiment.

Oddly, 62 percent of respondents believed that buyers need must put at least 20 percent down in order to purchase a home—current data has determined that 32 percent of current homeowners only put five percent down.

But the aftermath of the 2008 economic meltdown still resonates. Thirteen percent of respondents said they lost a home due to a financial event such as foreclosure in the past 10 years, while 61 percent have not bought a home since and 20 percent said they have swore off homeownership completely

Realtor.com®’s February data shows the U.S. housing market could be heading into a cooler spring market than last year. Although home prices are increasing, 14 percent of U.S. listings had price cuts in February, and the 51-month trend of declining days on market has reached a tipping point.

Nationally, homes sold in 83 days in February, the same rate as February of last year. This is a notable turning point in a 51-month stretch of declining time spent on the market. Additionally, there are other signs that the housing market is slower this year. The share of homes selling faster than 30 days has declined for the first time since realtor.com began tracking in 2013. This share declined from 28 percent in February 2018 to 27 percent this February. In the 50 largest U.S. metros, the typical home spent an average of three more days on the market in February 2019, compared to the previous year. Seattle, Riverside-San Bernardino and Sacramento saw the largest increases in days on market with properties spending 20, 15 and 13 more days on the market, respectively. On the flip-side, properties in Birmingham, Cleveland and Charlotte sold 15, 6 and 5 days faster than last year, respectively.

Housing inventory continues to increase both locally and at the national level. The national inventory grew by 6 percent year-over-year in February, amounting to approximately 73,000 additional listings, and housing inventory in the 50 largest U.S. metros grew by 11 percent. This is the fifth consecutive month in which inventory has been growing. The large metros which saw the biggest gains in inventory were San Jose, Seattle and San Francisco, growing by 125 percent, 85 percent and 53 percent, respectively.

In February, the share of homes which had their prices cut increased by 2 percent compared to the previous year. This increase was driven by price reductions in the nation’s largest markets. In fact, 39 of the 50 largest markets saw an increase in their share of price reductions compared to last year. Las Vegas saw the greatest increase in price reductions in February, up 19 percent. It was followed by San Jose (+9 percent), Phoenix (+7 percent), San Francisco (+5 percent), and Dallas (+4 percent).

The median U.S. listing price grew 7 percent year-over-year to $294,800 in February, lower than last year’s increase of 10 percent. However, the continuing rise in national median home listing prices in the midst of a market slowdown is likely attributed to inventory growth in the upper tier of the nation’s most expensive markets. The number of homes priced $750,000 and above grew 11 percent over last year, while the number of homes $200,000 and under declined by 7 percent.

Of the 50 largest metros, 35 saw year-over-year gains in median listing prices, but only 11 markets outpaced the national increase of 7 percent. Milwaukee (17 percent increase), Birmingham (14 percent increase), and Rochester (12 percent increase) posted the highest year-over-year median list price growth in February. The steepest median listing prices declines were felt in San Jose, where prices were down 10 percent. Dallas, Austin, and Houston followed with a decline of 4 percent each.